hostages human shields by syrian rebels in the golan heights. thousands of venezuelans publicly more in their late leader with the death of who go shadows leaving behind a political vacuum and uncertainty. unknown drones the u.s. and pakistan trade accusations over who was behind air strikes last month as the spread of unmanned aircraft raises the specter of unaccountable killings. and a top choice theater dancer who admitted to ordering an attack on the artistic director of the ballet company pleads not guilty saying he didn't know would be so severe or that acid would be used we have the details of the case shortly. it's noon in moscow has

a very good having you with us here on r t we begin our show in the middle east where the u.n. is demanding the immediate release of a group of its peacekeepers being held hostage by syrian rebels in the golan heights militants say they're being they're using the observers as human shields and will hold them until syria's government forces pull back from a nearby village let's get the latest from artie's middle east correspondent paula sli or so paula so paula tell us what do we know about the status of the hostages have they come to any harm at this point. well we don't have any information in terms of how they're being treated but what we do know is that all twenty one you and personnel were on armed they're all from the philippines and we've heard from the philippines foreign office who has demanded their immediate release the philippines government says that they are being treated well that negotiations are underway to try and secure their release now the rebel group responsible for taking these hostages says that it won't release them until the captives loyal to the

syrian president bashar assad withdraw from a nearby village at the same time the militants are admitting that they took these u. n. personnel to try and prevent an attack by assad's loyalists in other words what we're seeing is that the rebel forces are using this you and team as human shields now the u.n. has of course condemned this act this action we've heard criticism particularly from moscow at the united nations. there is no reason at all under any circumstances any kind of a sick imagination to try to harm harm those people so clearly gross disrespect for united nations gross disrespect of the international norms of behavior now the united nations is currently also involved in negotiating their immediate release according to the united nations it's team were on a regular mission in the area we're talking about an area not far from the israeli

syrian border that happened earlier on wednesday when they were taken hostage now paula leading up to this hostage crisis western countries and there are about allies have stepped up support for the rebels recently what exactly is the opposition getting here. well it's correct what you say what we are seeing is that this all comes as western powers and their arab allies step up lethal and military aid to the rebels the hostage crisis costs through the doubt over the transparency of the support and indeed the kind of actions that the rebels are purporting it also questions includes hence the supplies coming from the international community ultimately end up in and where these weapons are being used and how in fact they are being used now last week the u.s. secretary of state john kerry announced that the united states was going to be providing food and medical supplies directly to the rebels can you also pledged an additional sixty million dollars in assistance to syria's political opposition to

topple the syrian president bashar assad now what we've seen is that this is the first time that the united states has publicly committed itself to sending non lethal aid to the armed factions that are fighting against the syrian president assad britain also hasn't ruled out supplying the rebels with weapons in suture alright artie's palos we are live for us from tel aviv thanks very much for that update. now earlier my colleague bill dodds spoke with our correspondent during a delusion about the ramifications of increased foreign backing for radical syrian rebels. we do know where they get their arms from at least there has been plenty of information to deduce that from we do know that saudi arabia as well as qatar as well as turkey libya and the united states have all offered some sort of aid financial or military in one way or another to the syrian rebels we don't know exactly how much has been shipped to these countries we do know that for example

qatar has offered has made the latest offer to the syrian rebels which amounts to one hundred million dollars and of course there is also talk from the united kingdom where william hague has already said that he thinks the u.k. should step up their aid if the words the. towards the syrian rebels as well and he is talking about something in the amount of roughly one thousand in a half million dollars and that would include armored vehicles body armor search and rescue and disease prevention so there's plenty of aid coming to the syrian rebels and really countries not seem to shy away from offering it to them john kerry he's expressed confidence that weapons are going to the right people so who then of the so-called right people taking u.n. peacekeepers hostage and that actually should be the first question that should come to mind because obviously when john kerry is talking about the right people he means that he does he hopes that the aids does not go to words that hardline

islamic jihad is of which there are reports show there is plenty off in syria and these are the types of people that the u.s. qatar saudi arabia and the rest of them have been supporting and given them plenty of aid they have offered them basically everything they have on the table and now we can assume that it's safe for them to say that they have in fact created a monster because now these very people are taking hostages international peacekeeping troops which are on the ground and it really have no role in the syrian conflict whatsoever. some analysts say the austin crisis should be a wake up call for the powers who are supporting rebels and i've no control over how the assistance is being distributed kind of make sure that the weapons will end up in the intended sides and again if you look at the fact that what this incident illustrates with these kind of guns or productive nature the lack of control that any minute real somebody on the ground for the opposition or outside put it to good or sorry t.v. is intrigue doing its job and doesn't exercise that one tool that he claims it does

so the west should really think a lot before doing i'm harming the rebels because they most certainly won't want to end up with with the target groups it seems that the kind of the so-called rebels started to hand you in peacekeepers hostage they weren't quite sure and even want kind of the purpose of that young group that was there which is the story he has been there to separate israeli and syrian troops soul and they kind of completely seem to be unfamiliar with what the purpose of those troops are or peacekeepers are and the kind of their dead asking for a complete international demand and again that's another indication of how explosive and international this situation has become. shifting gears to some of the day's other top stories in venezuela under seven days of mourning after the death of charismatic outspoken leader who go chavez thousands took to the streets after he died tuesday following a long battle with cancer was he failing

a producer for artie's video agency ruptly has more. to caracas today is streets a very calm but really very somebody asli the coffin of hugo chavez was taken through the streets today and was finally taken to the military academy where thousands of people have gathered outside of the military academy and there's a queue which seems to know no end of people who are waiting to be able to see the body of hugo chavez and pay their final respects people are still very much in a state of shock obviously hugo chavez has been battling with cancer for a very long time at the moment there's a lot of confusion about what kind of coming days and weeks have to bring all of the. projects that were taken over the last fourteen years that he was in power benefited the most marginal marginalized sections of venezuelan society of course before hugo chavez came into power in one thousand nine hundred nine venezuela was one of the most unequal societies are now that gap has been reduced because of

a number of social programs that were brought in by hugo chavez banks to be immense oil wealth that this country has and who. chavez came to power in one thousand nine hundred nine much of that oil wealth was obviously going into the pockets of a very small elite in venezuela. and which. has supporters today say form the backbone essentially of the opposition that if the opposition again took power then essentially the country would robust back to pre-one thousand nine eleven stream inequality obviously we know that there's going to be elections in the next thirty days and among the supporters here the people who have been out in the streets today they're very confident that the vice president nicolas maduro is going so comfortably win the next elections but of course you know that remains to be seen or washington the dearth of chavez will bring an end to a stream of criticism but professor of latin american studies mcgill tinker sell us things while venezuela selects its next leader it's in the us best interest to keep

a lower profile. washington that would be will advise to not get involved in venezuela the least they can say at this point is the better this is a process we're going to see a very heated election and any intervention on the part of the u.s. even a misstep on obama would be taken as as as hostility towards venezuela would play into the into the elections in venezuela in this context but after the election of a new president i think that there are good conditions for an effort to reestablish relationships but i think we should understand that it's not just venezuela that had a has had difficulty with washington also ecuador has no ambassador from the u.s. bolivia has no embassador from the u.s. and the wiki leaks reports really indicate how u.s. attempted to maneuver and to play country against country in latin america and it really provide a revealing look about u.s. foreign policy and how little it has changed either from bush or obama.

and coming up later this hour a changing tie the british public growing weary of its old school political leaders with growing support at the polls for the so-called none of the above party. and egyptian authorities struggling to control the city of port city and were on arrest and nonstop anti-government protests have claimed several lives more after a short break. these children. they're serving

a sentence just like their mother. little ones born in prison. for the crimes committed by their parents. kill babies on our t.v. . choose your language. of choice because we know if the child going to stay still somehow to. choose the school consents to. choose to give to us that you've a great deal to. choose to stories could impact your life choose the access to your office.

thanks for staying with us here on our t.v. fourteen minutes past the hour now in egypt protesters have set streets a light in the city of port sayed in battle security forces and a challenge to the state's authority there demanding the release of prisoners six people including three police have died since under arrest or up to three days ago here's the latest from our egypt correspondent bill true. the battles raged through the night said largely focused around these key buildings these key government buildings in poor sayit with protesters hireling mother talks security forces the army again to try to intervene to assist the police force and haven't been able to quell with the sense that this is all a head office against very contentious and i think in the pool is our youth football disaster talk and last february basically we're going to see the betting on the final defendants in this trial in pools i.e.

they're very angry as twenty people was and was to death in the first round of this verdict we have the second round coming out with a lot of dissent will go to get hit also in cairo so we wait to see what's going to happen the government to change the head of security in course i eat off this by days of fighting on the streets they replace him with the deputy also president mohamed morsi is reportedly being mumming a minute taking over saeed out of a jewel at least and i'm guessing very much between protesters and the police themselves the police actually very angry as well by saying that the situation for them is extremely violent and that they don't have good working conditions eight thousand police officers are currently reported being on strike in sinai in suicide they are actually calling for the current minister of interior to to step down. not to pressure on the current administration the u.s.

is dodging accusations it's drones killed up to nine people last month in pakistan saying pakistan's own military could be to blame so-called phantom strikes are becoming a problem because it means people are being killed and no one's being held to account for it or to use marina porton i reports from new york. america has long been considered the leader of drone warfare dominating the skies in the middle east africa and most recently here in the u.s. in pakistan the cia has reportedly carried out some three hundred thirty drone strikes since two thousand and four but a new problem involving the unmanned aerial weapon is emerging the problem of anonymous drones went to drone strikes killed nine people in pakistan's tribal belt last month is long was filed an official protest with the american embassy however u.s. officials say that washington has not carried out any attacks in pakistan since january

instead u.s. officials have pointed their fingers to pakistan's air force it is impossible to know who executed the strikes but some experts believe that the situation can soon open up a pandora's box of anonymous drone strikes around the world it's lending itself of anonymity why the very nature of the technology that there are zero control hundreds are often thousands of miles away this is one of the corrosive and dangerous impacts of liberation of the use of drones and there has the united states government has led her way and negative around a lot of the terms of normalizing the use of drone attacks across international borders as of last month at least fifty countries are reportedly using drones in the united states a new revelation has come to light the attorney general says that washington can authorize lethal drone strikes on americans on american soil without trying and

it's testimony before the senate judiciary committee eric holder says that under extraordinary circumstances like september eleventh the president could order strikes to protect the homeland the same type of drone strikes that have been used around the world to fight the war on terror reporting from new york bring up or not party. the attorney general's admission that drone strikes could be used inside the u.s. angered some members of the senate kentucky republican rand paul launched an old school thirteen hour filibuster a speech demanding the obama administration pledge not to target its own people as a result democrats who control the opportunity were forced to delay a vote on john brennan's nomination as the new head of the central intelligence agency and alitalia pilot has told controllers he recently spotted an unmanned aircraft as he came to land at j.f.k. airport in new york author and academic mark mason says now more drones than ever

are available and they pose new dangers and even a greater risk of being misuse. the report was made to this point the information's not available as to it was it a model airplane was it a surveillance drone it was reported to be relatively small three four five six feet didn't really too small in terms of drones so this morning we don't have the information but what we do know with certainty is that drones are. going to be a little bull not only to governments but to individuals and they will diversify in terms of their. size are going to be made us air force has already announced is going to be making drones that are the size of an insect that can assess if you will so these this technology is here a top dancer from the bolshoi theater has taken center stage this time in a moscow court pavel dmitrichenko attended

a pretrial hearing after admitting to organizing an attack on the company's ballet director but he insisted that he had no idea how severe it would be our peacetime bargain is outside the ball short here with more so tom how is it to me how is dmitrichenko defended his role in what happened. well. the major chain co is a leading dancer at the at the bolshoi ballet and two accomplices was at this pretrial hearing in the moscow court today they have previously written confessions admitting to some crimes but as it as was evident when the judge asked to me to change will you apologize to the bolshoi's artistic director surrogate fill in for what you have done he said for what which indicated what he later expressed himself on through his lawyer which is that he does not plead

guilty to the severity of the tack that he is accused of that is of the throwing of acid into sergei filin face he has admitted some crime and some part of organizing perhaps or threats it was said that he would accept perhaps one of his accomplices going and hitting sergei filin in the head but certainly not throwing acid into his face a judge will later decide whether he is to be kept all the all three of the individuals or to be kept. in detention in house arrest or to be released on bail it was in january that surrogate feeling was going back to his apartment when and at that time are known assailant ran up and threw acid into his face the causes around this the possible motivations are what is stirring up or not only a media storm but a great storm of rumors both inside and outside the. theater police have said that

there was there was hostility between the two men and that the attack was a result result of tensions in the workplace it is widely rumored at the moment that it may have had something to do with the. with. pavel dmitrichenko girlfriend also a leading dancer at the bolshoi and fill ins refusal to give her lead roles that has not been said in court that's just rumors but the storm of rumors around this a very unlikely to die down. all right artie's time barton live for us outside the box roy theater thanks very much for that update. well for more on the scandal i'm joined here in the studio by our teas culture correspondent and expert martin andrews thanks very much for joining us here so when people are in the theater looking at this beautiful player show performance on stage it looks like everything is perfect everything is going like clockwork but tell us what goes on behind the

curtain well my background is actually musical theater back in london and i can certainly say that you want your drama in the front of in the theater and there's always drama in the backstage too you're talking about problems with understudies you're talking about problems with costing as tom mentioned before about the fact that his you know favors the favors is that all about who's dating who so the tensions are high and not just within the companies but tensions are also extremely tools regarding the artistic director is obviously we've had troubles with the bolshoi and the leadership for the past few years and you know it is drama through and through now you mentioned well we were talking earlier some of the other things that have gone on that you've heard of in terms of this company and others can you tell us about some of those well i think first of all it's important to mention that it's a multi multi million dollar business it's you know it's the it's the pinnacle of moscow's cultural sea in the bolshoi since its renovation. it's you know it's high

drama in every aspect and also regarding the different companies within moscow this severe tensions between them and this is obviously come to fruition in this tragic case all right well thank you very much for that insight martin. the shape of british politics shifting with swathes of the public growing disillusioned with the policies of so-called mainstream parties recent byelection saw the governing conservatives beaten into second place by the u.k.i.p. u.k.i.p. a party that's never held a seat in parliament and until now has been dismissed as simply a fringe movement or two sarah firth has more from london. britain's political landscape is changing the stranglehold of the old three party system appears to be listening and it's a pin the door to some colorful alternatives with all the polls and percentages and opinions from politicians and pundits it can be hard to get

a clear picture of exactly what's happening in british politics right now as are looking at last week's by election in eastley saw not three not four not five but full team different candidates of all shapes sizes and colors and all of them willing to take on the mainstream party to government in britain. and to turn it from. democracy to bottom up genuine democracy where the larger all forces have to obey the will of the people they to disillusionment it seems is an all time high something that's backed up by recent polls and there's certainly a bit of a perception that maybe the traditional parties aren't concentrating on some issues particularly around immigration that we know is a big issue for many members of the chick flick puts can certainly be a hard punch to please it used to be that fed up voters would throw their backing

behind the liberal democrats but not anymore. possibly for us as a party which is good but it doesn't mean the protest vote has had to go somewhere else and the one of the above par three hundred moment is you keep many of the parties using the sea change in public opinion as a blank canvas on which to stamp their mark. a protest vote. well let's face it that's a lot to. you keep beating the conservatives to second place in eastley last week might have come as a shock to some but it's not. first time a small parties stolen the show in a byelection. and the respect posse had a sensational win in toulouse galloway one the proud fitzy from the labor of coolest gaining a bit of media coverage is one thing turning that attention into bait in

a ballot bowl and winning seats is quite another something he the smaller parties have yet been able to day but with a general election will say thorough and with some polls putting almost hollow at three thousand support for the u.k. it is coming from full my conservative base is well you can perhaps understand why the prime minister is not the picture of happiness right now sarah. london but next a look into how women in russia's penal system struggle to maintain their families while serving time behind bars stay with us here on our team.

did you see darth vader and storm troopers trying to make their way into the ukrainian justice ministry as part of a protest well probably a lot of you saw this fun viral video but how many people remember what exactly they wanted and what their protest demands were all about probably not that many trust me i understand that using wacky protest tactics gets media attention and if you are pushing a cause the media attention is critical but when no one even gets what you want or why you are in that wacky costume it doesn't help there seems to be like almost a protest a culture and language like you see people protesting they're so satisfied with themselves and their costumes and silly gimmicks but if your protest is actually aimed at people in power then the house is going to cure cost of goods with the opinion of heartless bureaucrats sitting in some solar. office again media attention is great but if you want to be taken seriously wearing a rainbow wig and thawing while fighting for your rights doesn't seem to send the right message but that's just my opinion.